The Puppet Master
by Unconscious Again
Summary: It turns out that Mirajane Strauss is wonderful at chess.


**Greetings Earthlings! And thus begins the first of (many, I'm sure, to come) introspective oneshots by yours truly. This one was inspired by two amazing fics: "The Last Cake," by Smoochynose and "Checkmate," by half truths, and was written because I feel like Mira is nowhere near as airheaded as she pretends to be.**

 **Warning: Spoilers for the last episode of the Edolas arc, as well as for Mira's (and the Strauss' in general) backstory. Um, also very vague (and I mean like if you've seen it you'll know they're spoilers, otherwise you'll just be mildly confused) spoilers for Cana's backstory, and perhaps the Thunder Legion's motivations as well. Readeth at thine own risk.**

 **Disclaimer: I can only dream of claiming ownership of Fairy Tail. Until then, I'll just write fanfiction.**

 **And on that note: enjoy!**

 **:::**

Mirajane Strauss was wonderful at chess.

Not the board game with the kings and castles, oh no. In fact, she had hardly ever played it. No, she was talking about a variant of chess she liked to call matchmaking.

Whenever she brought this comparison up to most people, they assumed she was joking. Perhaps one needed a good eye for matchmaking, they would say, maybe a push here and a shove there, but surely there was no real thinking involved. Yes, these people were the ones who would laugh at her failed attempts to join couples together and go back to their lives, not realizing that a few drawbacks were all part of an interesting game.

She knew better. She knew that to ensure a plan worked, one had to think ahead. While her unsuspecting couples might have had chemistry, they would all resist her prodding at first. They would unconsciously do their best to thwart her carefully worked out schemes. She was fine with that. She would just quietly think of all of their possible moves; mind whirring under the veneer of a cheerful barmaid.

It never mattered how they played. She nearly always had a counter-strategy, a Plan B, and if she didn't, she was clever enough to adapt on the fly.

Most of her games were - goodness, not easy - but predictable. She knew what her opponent could do before even they did, and while it took patience and the occasional failed fake "plan", things would always come together. But sometimes, sometimes something would throw her off. While it was true that she called matchmaking a variant of chess, it wasn't just any other way to play the game. It was harder.

In chess, no matter the skill level of your opponent, you were always playing with the same pieces, and they would always go where you told them to go. But in her game, those statements were as good as out the window. In her game, there was no telling when a person would walk onto or off of the board, or if she would suddenly end up on another playing board altogether.

And then there were the people themselves. She could always predict their approximate moves based on their past interactions and experiences, but she couldn't be there for every moment of their lives; especially if she was playing multiple games at once. Sometimes, she just had to guess, and that could lead to a temporary stalemate. No matter. She would always find her way out of tight situations. She had a knack for it, after all.

Yes, there were variables, she mused, but variables were fine by her. She would simply have to improvise. She might not mind an easy win, but nothing was more fun than an unpredictable game.

It was interesting, watching the reactions people had to her meddling. While most people laughed it off and forgot about it, there were a certain few that she knew were aware of how far in advance she planned her moves.

Two of those people were her siblings. She had expected them to realize it; after all, they had known her the longest. They confronted her about it, once, after everything that happened in Edolas. They asked her, not how she did it (for they knew she was much more clever than anyone ever thought she was, and, while her ditziness was genuine, she could observe a lot more that way), but why. Why she became the puppetmaster. So she told them.

She told them that she knew everyone in her guild had a sadness in their past, something that would hurt them as long as they remembered it. She told them that she wanted her guildmates to find someone to help them shoulder that burden, like her siblings did for her. She told them that she didn't want to see anyone cry anymore. Like she had when she was outcast. When she was ostracized. When she was the devil child. When she was young (and young she had been, so young, too young to have had rocks and insults hurled at her like she was some kind of monster).

But what she didn't tell her siblings was that she had been scared. When their little group of three had arrived in Magnolia, she didn't know how anyone would react to her: a girl whose arm was possessed by a demon. And that terrified her. Would they kick her out; harm her and her siblings? Would even a legal guild in a modern town not accept them? She didn't know.

So she started to observe. In those quiet moments when she wasn't chatting, or on a mission, or in a brawl, she would carefully watch her fellow guildmates. She saw how they reacted to things, to people, to situations. She kept track. And she planned her moves based on those observations, making sure she could always keep her and her little family safe. That was the database that founded her game.

Yes, her siblings knew about the precision in her game, and she knew they knew, but what really surprised her were the others that found out. The card mage, who, despite her drunkenness, was incredibly keen in her observations. The dark écriture wizard, whose sharp eyes hid behind green hair and a red cloak. And, maybe oddest of all, the young sky maiden and her white Exceed.

Or maybe not so odd. For the card mage had always been watching from all angles, in hopes of a glimpse of her elusive father. For the dark écriture wizard had never quite been loud and rambunctious like the rest, and had instead spent his time looking for signs anyone might want to hurt his fragile and beloved dragon slayer. And for the sky duo had never quite thought they belonged, and, for a lack of others their age, had simply joined in the others' fun a bit apart from the rest. Yes, perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised, because these were the people who had always picked up on things that most around them would never see.

And then there were the guild masters. Fairy Tail's beloved sixth master had an inkling of her plans, of course, but left her to them. After all, they would be a good thing for his children. He wouldn't interfere. But it was when, with a soft giggle, a ghost with wavy blonde hair and piercing green eyes took an interest in her that she knew she had won. The First Master had been playing this game much longer than she had, after all, and on a much larger scale.

Yes, now there was someone else there, someone on her side. The fairy tactician never asked her of her motives, simply aided her in planning her next move. Now there was someone to help her when she had to backtrack, to keep her from playing wrong, to guide her through the game, and she was grateful.

Her alliance with the tactician lasted three months, during which she improved greatly. The blonde fey then sent her on her way to find her own playing style; one that she could be proud to call her own.

She succeeded splendidly

 **:::**

She had always found it funny how people laughed when she compared matchmaking to chess. How they gave her sympathetic looks when her "plans" failed. They had no idea that she had planned it all eons ago, and that it was turning out exactly how she thought it was going to turn out.

And as she wiped down the bar with her rag, watching the chaos around her, she realized that she just couldn't wait for the day when the new game would begin, when the present one would finish, and when she could finally smile to herself and announce, "Checkmate."

Because in the end, it turns out that Mirajane Strauss is wonderful at chess.

 **:::**

 **How was it? Let me know!**

 **See ya!**

 **-Unconscious Again**


End file.
